The impact of substitutes for leadership on job satisfaction and performance

We analyzed the effects of leadership substitute factors on job satisfaction and performance of knowledge workers, based on existing studies on substitutes for leadership. The data were collected from 130 knowledge workers in China via survey questionnaires based on a modified version of the 41-item scale revised by Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1994), a performance scale based on the dimensions of task performance and contextual performance as classified by Motowildo, Borman, and Schmit (1997), and also used in research conducted by Sun and Jiao (2002), and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). The findings showed that 7 of the 13 variables of the model of substitutes for leadership proposed by Kerr and Jermier (1978) had positive effects on the job satisfaction and performance of the knowledge workers who took part in this study.